The presenter opens up about his concerns over his wife’s health
Eamonn Holmes has had his own health issues in recent years, having battled ‘soul-destroying’ chronic back pain since 2020. But the broadcaster has now shared his concerns for wife Ruth Langsford’s health, thanks to her family history of dementia.
Following the news that his close friend and fellow presenter Fiona Phillips has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s at 62, Eamonn, 63, confessed that given Ruth’s dad died from the disease in 2012, there is anxiety over whether she will inherit it.
‘I think of my own wife,’ he said. ‘Her father died, and her mother has to live with it at the moment, and anybody who’s in that situation will be thinking, “Is it coming to me next?”’
RUTH’S FEARS
It’s hardly surprising Eamonn is worried about his wife, as Ruth herself has been open about her fear of Alzheimer’s. ‘I do worry about memory loss because I’ve got Alzheimer’s in my family,’ she shared earlier this year. ‘So when I have those blank… you know, those really awful moments where it’s a really good friend and you go to introduce someone, and it’s like someone literally wiped my memory.’ She added, ‘That frightens me. I don’t even find it amusing.’
Ruth, 63, has been bravely honest in the past about how hard it was to watch her dad’s health decline, saying, ‘I felt frightened, in denial. My dad was like my mate and I didn’t want to lose my mate. I was angry. In the early stages, his long-term memory was really good, but he couldn’t recall what he had for breakfast.’ She added, ‘His decline was long and slow, so my mum looked after him for 11 years. Dementia is horrible. It’s strange, because you’re grieving while they’re still alive. They are physically there, but their spirit appears not to be. It’s like you’ve lost them... but there they are.’
Ruth explained how her dad’s memory loss started ‘when
